Harry Dresden Returns in Eleventh Book

Jim Butcher has invented one of the most entertaining characters in science fiction and fantasy with Harry Dresden, professional wizard. Unlike Gandalf of Middle Earth, Harry Dresden operates in modern day Chicago aiding the police with those X-File type cases that crop up. As the series grew in popularity, the Sci-Fi Channel produced a short-run program, “The Dresden Files,” a most watchable and noble effort. Harry returns now in an 11th book, Turn Coat, and Mr. Butcher hasn't lost his touch. It made number 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Without spoiling the story, Harry's nemisis Morgan shows up at the Dresden home badly wounded. It turns out he is wanted for the murder of another wizard by the White Council of Wizards. Before long, vampires, a Navajo skinwalker and the Chicago Police Department get into the act. Harry takes his usual beatings with a smart-assed aplomb that is reminiscent of Sam Spade if he had grown up in the 1980s. And he does outsmart the opposition from time to time.

For those who have yet to read any of the Dresden Files, it isn't necessary to start at the beginning. Although it is a little easier to follow developments if one does know the grand story arc being told across the series, each book stands on its own. It is to Mr. Butcher's credit that he can explain a situation of other worldly politics or the science of magic in a line or two, thus giving newcomers what they need to know without boring his hard-core followers with excessive repetition.

Since the success of the Dresden Files, Mr. Butcher has branched out. He is also the author the the Codex Alera, a much more traditional swords and sorcery series with five tomes currently published – a sixth is due in December. Also, back in 2006, he wrote a Spiderman novel, Darkest Hours. To say he is prolific is understatement. What also endears his work is the craftsmanship with which he approaches writing. Many critics in mainstream literature condemn the actual writing in much of the SF&F genre, and often with justification. Not so with Mr. Butcher, whose craft enhances the imagination of his work.

After a few books, most fiction series start to feel tired, as if the author is stuck in a rut. In the case of Harry Dresden, 11 novels only seems to have scratched the surface. The worlds he inhabits are rich in detail and intrigue, and one expects that the series will only end when Mr. Butcher has finished mining the rich seam of creativity he has found. One hopes that that is a long time in coming.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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